BNL Establishes NSLS-II Project in Light Sources Directorate

December 9, 2005

Recently, Laboratory Director Praveen Chaudhari named Steve Dierker, Associate Laboratory Director (ALD) for Light Sources, as Project Director of the newly established National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II) Project. The move was triggered by the Lab's recent success in getting DOE approval for "Critical Decision Zero" (CD-0, Approval of Mission Need) for NSLS-II, the planned world-leading successor to BNL's NSLS. NSLS-II will meet critical scientific challenges of the future, provide state-of-the-art technology for research - complementing BNL's Center for Functional Nanomaterials -- and play a pivotal role in fostering economic growth in the northeastern United States.

CD-0 is the first of five Critical Decisions that the project will need to achieve in order to progress through the successively more detailed stages of conceptual design, preliminary design, and final design, followed by construction, and then operations. While the site for NSLS-II is not formally selected until the next Critical Decision (CD-1, Approved Alternative Selection and Cost Range), BNL believes that there are strong reasons for citing NSLS-II at BNL.

"At Brookhaven, we have long experience and deep technical knowledge in the synchrotron light source field, along with an excellent infrastructure, demonstrated support from potential facility users of national and international standing, and an extraordinarily skilled and experienced workforce," states Dierker. "For these and other reasons, we believe NSLS-II should be located here at BNL."

NSLS-II will be a major project, with an estimated cost of $800M, and will employ up to 200 people during the peak of construction. The NSLS-II Project organization is being created in the Light Sources Directorate to put in place the management systems and infrastructure required to execute this complex undertaking. Building upon the groundwork laid by NSLS staff, the first task of the new organization will be to develop the documents required for CD-1, including a Conceptual Design Report and more refined cost and schedule estimates.

As NSLS-II Project Director, Dierker will retain his position as ALD for Light Sources and step down as Chair of the NSLS Department. Chi-Chang Kao, the current NSLS Department Deputy Chair, has been named Interim NSLS Chair and, after a transition period, will assume his new responsibilities in mid-January, 2006.

The NSLS-II Project Office will be housed in Building 817. The organization plan is well under way, and includes an Administration & Finance Office, headed by an Associate Director for Administration & Finance; and three technical Divisions -- Accelerator Systems, Experimental Facilities, and Conventional Facilities -- each headed by a Division Director. Several advisory committees are being formed to provide broad perspective and expert advice, including an NSLS-II Advisory Board and advisory committees for each of the three Divisions.

Each Division will be responsible for design and construction activities within its specialty area, and will be staffed with a range of specialty groups. Many of these positions are expected to be filled by existing Lab personnel. With an estimated annual operating cost of $90M, the staff required to operate NSLS-II will be about twice as large as that required to operate the present NSLS, adding about 200 new positions to the Laboratory.

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One of ten national laboratories overseen and primarily funded by the Office of Science of the
U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Brookhaven National Laboratory conducts research in the physical,
biomedical, and environmental sciences, as well as in energy technologies and national security.
Brookhaven Lab also builds and operates major scientific facilities available to university, industry
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University of New York on behalf of Stony Brook University, the largest academic user of Laboratory
facilities, and Battelle, a nonprofit applied science and technology organization.